BOYS HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER D-I PLAYOFFS: Cards advance to D-1 semifinals

CHICO ? Corning's Diego Figueroa had a date with the back of the net Thursday, when the fifth-seeded Cardinals varsity soccer team shut out the fourth-seeded Pleasant Valley Vikings 2-0 at PV to advance to the Northern Section Division I semifinal round.

Figueroa, a senior, knocked in both of Corning's goals with immaculate free kicks in the second half.

?It's unfortunate,? Vikings coach Mike Vought said. ?It's not something you gameplan for. You don't think, ?Here's what we'll do if we give up a free kick or if we get a free kick.' You know, you just don't plan on winning games that way.?

Pleasant Valley downed Corning 3-0 in December in a nonleague game, and Cardinals coach Ascension Llamas said his team learned from that loss coming into Thursday's playoff matchup.

Llamas said he wanted to feel the game out and play cautiously at first, something that the Cards didn't do in their previous game against the Vikings.

?It was a little bit tougher than we thought, but I was confident in the team and we came through,? Llamas said.

But there was one more wrinkle that influenced play on the pitch ? a strong and consistent wind.

?The wind in the first half was pushing our way, so every time we blew (the ball) out it would always come back to our side,? Umana said.

The Vikings (11-4-1) had the wind at their backs in the first half, when Pleasant Valley controlled play and had seven strong chances on goal.

?Each team that had the wind on one half ... dominated the half,? Vikings senior Nick Lopez said, adding, ?We just didn't get to play our game. They took us out of our game and they didn't get to play their game but they still beat us.?

Figueroa's first goal came in the 57th minute with a strike that sailed above the outstretched arms of the Vikings' keeper from well outside PV's right box.

And while PV's intensity then picked up afterward, there would be no equalizer.

Figueroa knocked in his second free-kick goal past the keeper's left in the 75th minute.

Lopez said the Vikings were caught off guard by the kick and didn't get their wall set up in time.

PV did have a chance to cut its two-goal deficit in half late in the game when senior Jake Lopez was awarded a penalty kick.

And so came the end of the season for the Vikings, who shared the Eastern Athletic League title with third-seeded Chico.

?I'm really proud of this team for a lot of reasons,? Vought said.

?We were dealt a number of setbacks beginning in preseason, and then early in the year we suffered through some pretty serious injuries. Three broken legs, had some players that had some personal issues and kind of broke the team apart early on.

But we managed to get stronger despite those losses.?

Corning, which fell in the section title game last year, continues its run through the playoffs with a match against the topseeded Shasta Wolves (14-1-2) at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

?I believed in our team that we could make it to the next round,? Figueroa said. ?Whoever didn't believe in us, we just proved them wrong.?

--------- Sports Editor Andre Byik can be reached at 527-2151, ext. 111 or at sports@redbluffdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TehamaSports